U.S. President Donald Trump speaks as he sits subsequent to a “Trump Gold Card” signal, within the Oval Workplace on the White Home in Washington, D.C., U.S., Sept. 19, 2025.
Ken Cedeno | Reuters
Main expertise firms and international governments are speeding to reply after President Donald Trump late Friday introduced plans to impose a $100,000 charge on H-1B visas, threatening to upend this system that underpins America’s expertise workforce.
The charge would apply to new H-1B candidates, not renewals or present visa holders, in accordance with a White Home official. It would first apply within the upcoming lottery cycle, and it doesn’t apply to 2025 lottery winners, the individual mentioned. The White Home additionally clarified that the brand new $100,000 charge shouldn’t be an annual cost, as beforehand reported by a number of media retailers.
The transfer may deal a large blow to firms — primarily within the expertise and finance sectors — that rely closely on extremely expert immigrants, significantly from India and China.
The announcement despatched shockwaves via among the nation’s greatest tech and finance firms:
- Amazon’s immigration group suggested its H-1B and H-4 visa holders to stay within the U.S. and for these abroad to return earlier than 12:01 a.m. ET on Sept. 21, in accordance with inside messages considered by CNBC.
- JPMorgan Chase’s legislation agency despatched a memo asking H-1B visa holders on the agency to stay within the U.S. and keep away from worldwide journey till additional steerage, in accordance with an individual aware of the matter.
- Goldman Sachs informed workers holding H-1B visas to train warning when touring internationally based mostly on steerage from immigration providers agency Fragomen, in accordance with an inside memo seen by Reuters.
- Microsoft additionally has reportedly suggested H-1B visa holders to stay within the U.S. and for these abroad to return, warning that worldwide journey may jeopardize their immigration standing, in accordance with emails seen by Reuters.
The charge represents the administration’s most aggressive transfer but to limit authorized immigration. Since taking workplace in January, Trump has superior a broad crackdown on each unlawful and authorized entry into the U.S., however Friday’s announcement marks probably the most vital try to clamp down on employment visas.
Amazon employed probably the most H-1B holders — greater than 14,000 as of the top of June. Microsoft, Meta, Apple and Google had over 4,000 such visas every, among the many high 10 recipients for the fiscal 12 months 2025.
CNBC has reached out to all the public firms on the highest 10 H-1B recipient checklist for remark. The White Home did not instantly reply to an e-mail asking for remark.
“President Trump promised to place American staff first, and this commonsense motion does simply that by discouraging firms from spamming the system and driving down wages,” Taylor Rogers, a White Home spokeswoman, informed CNBC. “It additionally offers certainty to American companies who truly wish to deliver high-skilled staff to our nice nation however have been trampled on by abuses of the system.”
‘Humanitarian penalties’
The announcement additionally disrupted the established order abroad, the place international governments scrambled to evaluate the affect of the brand new guidelines on their nations.
India’s Ministry of Exterior Affairs mentioned it’s learning the visa restrictions and their implications, stressing that each Indian and U.S. industries share an curiosity in sustaining competitiveness in innovation. It additionally highlighted the doubtless disruption to particular person households.
“This measure is more likely to have humanitarian penalties by the use of the disruption precipitated for households. Authorities hopes that these disruptions might be addressed suitably by the US authorities,” India’s Ministry of Exterior Affairs mentioned in an announcement.
South Korea’s international ministry additionally mentioned it’s assessing the implications for Korean companies and expert staff.
Under is a searchable checklist of the highest 100 U.S. firms which were H1-B recipients in fiscal 12 months 2025.
— CNBC’s Annie Palmer contributed to this report.
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